Where to stay with kids in Netherlands

Family hotel picks in Netherlands

• 

  Oud-West / De Baarsjes€€Mid-range

  Apartment in Oud-West

  Two-bedroom flats in this belt of residential streets cost less than two hotel rooms in the canal ring and add the things a family actually uses in an expensive city: a kitchen, a washing machine and somewhere to sit once the children are asleep.

  • Kitchen and washing machine
  • Supermarkets and playgrounds on the same streets
  • Trams into the centre in about ten minutes
  • Vondelpark within walking distance

  Fitting a family in

  Two-bedroom units sleep four to five without a rollaway. Many are a single floor of a converted house, so confirm whether the second bedroom is a real room or a windowless box room before booking for two children.

  Watch out. Dutch staircases in older buildings are extremely steep and narrow, and a great many apartments have no lift at all. Check the floor number and the lift explicitly if anyone is carrying a pushchair or a heavy case.

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• 

  Amsterdam-Noord€€Mid-range

  Family rooms across the IJ in Amsterdam-Noord

  Newer buildings on the north bank offer rooms that genuinely sleep four at rates well below the canal ring, and the ferry crossing that separates them from the centre is free, runs around the clock and is itself something children want to do twice a day.

  • Free 24-hour passenger ferries to Centraal, taking bikes and pushchairs
  • Purpose-built rooms sleeping four with a lift
  • Metro to the centre in a few minutes from the north-bank stations
  • More parking availability than anywhere inside the ring

  Fitting a family in

  Rooms designed for four are far more common on this side of the water than in converted canal houses, and bunk or sofa-bed configurations are standard rather than an upgrade.

  Watch out. Every trip into the centre is a ferry or metro ride plus a walk, which adds twenty to thirty minutes each way and becomes tiring by the third day. Evenings on the north bank are quiet, with few restaurants outside the two redeveloped waterfront clusters.

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• 

  Walcheren coast — Domburg / Oostkapelle€€Mid-range

  Self-catering apartment behind the Domburg dunes

  A coastal week with children runs on a kitchen, a drying space for wet clothes and a beach that can be reached on foot, and an apartment a few hundred metres behind the dune ridge delivers all three without a car journey at each end of the day.

  • Walking distance to a dune crossing and the beach
  • Kitchen, washing machine and outdoor drying space
  • Village shops and a bakery rather than a resort complex
  • Flat cycle routes to neighbouring beaches

  Fitting a family in

  Two-bedroom apartments are the standard unit and sleep four; a third bedroom or a sleeping alcove appears mainly in the larger dune-side blocks. Linen and towels are often charged separately rather than included.

  Watch out. The village empties out of season, with beach pavilions dismantled and many restaurants closed from roughly November to March. Summer stays are frequently Saturday-to-Saturday only, and compulsory end cleaning and tourist tax are added on arrival rather than shown in the headline rate.

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• 

  Schouwen-Duiveland€€Mid-range

  Bungalow on a wooded holiday park near Renesse

  The holiday-park format is what Dutch and German families use on this coast for a reason: a self-contained bungalow with its own terrace, a swimming pool and playgrounds on site, so a rained-off beach day does not end the holiday.

  • Detached or semi-detached bungalow with a terrace
  • Indoor pool and playgrounds within the park
  • Bike hire at the park entrance and cycle paths to the dunes
  • Parking beside the unit rather than in a beach car park

  Fitting a family in

  Units are sold by sleeping capacity, so a four- or six-person bungalow is a straightforward booking with two or three separate bedrooms rather than a hotel room with a folding bed.

  Watch out. Children's activity programmes are usually run in Dutch and sometimes German, with English an afterthought. Cleaning fees, linen, tourist tax and an energy charge are commonly added on top, and the beach is a cycle or drive away rather than at the gate.

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• 

  Otterlo / Hoenderloo€€Mid-range

  Forest lodge near the Otterlo park gate

  Staying within walking or cycling distance of a national park entrance removes the daily drive, the gate queue and the car charge, and it is what makes an early start for the deer at dawn realistic rather than theoretical.

  • Walk or ride to the park entrance rather than drive
  • Separate bedrooms and a kitchen in lodge-style units
  • Forest directly outside for short walks with tired children
  • Bike storage as standard

  Fitting a family in

  Lodges and bungalows here are sized by occupancy, with four- and six-person units standard. Some of the older stock is single-storey with a sleeping loft reached by a ladder-style stair, which does not suit very young children.

  Watch out. These villages are small: one or two restaurants, limited shopping and nothing open late, so a car is effectively required for a proper supermarket run. Sites near the main road can carry traffic noise that the forest setting does not suggest.

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• 

  Apeldoorn€€Mid-range

  Family room in central Apeldoorn

  A town base solves the two weaknesses of a forest stay with children: somewhere to eat that is not the lodge, and a wet-weather plan that does not require a forty-minute drive. The station puts Amsterdam, Utrecht and the airport on a direct line.

  • Intercity station with direct trains to Amsterdam and Schiphol
  • Primate park and palace gardens within the town
  • Restaurants, supermarkets and shops within walking distance
  • Forest cycle paths starting at the edge of town

  Fitting a family in

  Family rooms sleeping four exist but are a small part of the stock in a town of this size; interconnecting rooms are often the more available option and should be requested by name.

  Watch out. This is a town, not the forest: the national park gates are a twenty-minute drive, and the landscape everyone came for starts where the streets end. Town-centre rooms can be noisy on market days and weekend evenings.

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